But that had been before the interminable waste of the Grass War and the long train of young women and men in front of my desk with the trinkets they thought would give them a chance of not becoming food for crows in a field somewhere.

Rebecca Lyn Shelley is an Odyssey graduate. Wizards of the Coast released her first published novel, Red Dragon Codex, under the pen name R.D. Henham. Her next, Brass Dragon Codex, is due to hit the shelves February 10, 2009. She’s taken a short respite from dragons to share this story of dark love and death.